The Sigil Blade Read Free

an identity that was sufficiently dissimilar from the truth and compelling enough to satisfy them.
    “Until four days ago, I was on a square rigged freighter of Domirian make, called the Royal Accrual ,” Edryd began.
    Greven’s eyes darkened. “Your ship was built in one of the countries in the Ossian League,” he said. “You don’t look at all like someone from Domiria, and I would hope you are not an Ossian.”
    “No, no of course I’m not,” said Edryd. He didn’t seem particularly troubled by Greven’s assumptions, but he made an effort to dispel them, without volunteering any information about where it was he was actually from. “I was a part of the crew, but not as a matter of choice, you understand.”
    “I don’t,” said Greven.
    “Before I ended up on the Accrual , I was a passenger on a small boat making its way up the Ossian Coast. There were three of us—the owner of the boat, his son, and myself. We were in an inlet replenishing our fresh water when we were met onshore by a landing party from the Accrual .”
    “I’m going to guess that your encounter did not go well?” someone suggested smartly from across the room.
    “The captain of the Accrual declared our ship a wreck and claimed the salvage rights on our cargo. Well, as you might imagine, the owner of the boat didn’t agree.”
    “Rightly so,” insisted Greven.
    “There was quite a bit of shouting, and even though there was nothing worth taking, just provisions, nets, dried fish, and a bit of oil, they proceeded to ransack the boat anyway. I don’t think they were too happy with any of it, because they left it all on the beach. The only thing they wanted to take in the end was us. They ordered us to board the Accrual , and when we refused, they busted holes in the old man’s boat.”
    “Bastards,” muttered a dark haired man who had twisted around in his chair at the next nearest table to the one at which Edryd and Greven were sitting. It was becoming clear that more than a few of the people in the room were taking an interest in the conversation.
    “I hope you won’t judge me for this, but I didn’t know the old man. I had paid him for passage up the coast, and that was the extent of our association,” Edryd said. He stopped then, as if not wanting to continue.
    “What happened?” Greven asked.
    “I left them there. I watched from the deck of the Accrual as they stranded the man and his son.”
    “You should have done something,” demanded the dark haired man from the nearby table, turning his chair to more directly face Edryd and Greven.
    “What could he have done, Ivor?” said a second man, who sat cross from the one who had just spoken. “Apart from staying behind with a broken boat, or making some sort of useless protest, I don’t see as he had many options.”
    “I would like to think they may have been able to repair the boat,” Edryd rationalized, moving the story along. “And while I do regret abandoning those two, I regret it more for my own sake than I do for theirs. Things did not go well for me after that.”
    Greven and his customers were all paying close attention now, and everything Edryd said increased their desire to learn more.
    “Domiria being a League state, I had no fears that that I would be made into a slave, but to my misfortune, the captain had novel interpretations on more than just salvage laws.”
    The room grew quiet.
    “Ossians,” Ivor spat angrily, interrupting the silence. “The League only banned the sale of slaves as a means to attack the wealth and power of Seridor and her allies!” he declared vehemently. Ivor’s allegiance in the long running conflict between the Ossian League states and Seridor seemed clear enough.
    “There is no love here in An Innis for Ossians or for the League,” Greven explained. “I am sure you must already know that this island was once a prospering slave market.”
    Edryd would have liked to object, and insist that there was no such thing as